Xbox (brand)
right|250px The Microsoft Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console first released on November 15, 2001 in North America, then released on February 22, 2002 in Japan, and on March 14, 2002 in Europe. The Xbox was Microsoft's first independent venture into the video game console arena, after having developed the operating system and development tools for the MSX, and having collaborated with Sega in porting Windows CE to the Sega Dreamcast console. Notable launch titles for the console include Halo: Combat Evolved, Amped, Dead or Alive 3 and Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee. History Development The Xbox was initially developed within Microsoft by a small team which included Seamus Blackley, a game developer and high energy physicist. The rumors of a video game console being developed by Microsoft first emerged at the end of 1999 following interviews of Bill Gates. Gates said that a gaming/multimedia device was essential for multimedia convergence in the new times of digital entertainment. On March 10, 2000 the "X-box Project" was officially confirmed by Microsoft with a press release. "Microsoft unveils Plans for X-Box Videogame System Designed for Future-Generation Game Experiences", Xbox.com, March 10, 2000. Retrieved March 10, 2000. Some see the Xbox as a way to capitalize on the growing video game market, noting that the PC market growth was stagnating after the dot-com bust. According to the book Smartbomb, by Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby, the remarkable success of the upstart Sony PlayStation worried Microsoft in late 1990s. The growing video game market seemed to threaten the PC market which Microsoft had dominated and relied upon for most of its revenues. As well, a venture into the gaming console market would also diversify Microsoft's product line, which up to that time had been heavily concentrated into software. Xbox presented a standardized alternative to the near-endless variety of end-user configurations on the PC. The Xbox even brought high-end gaming technology to the mainstream, sporting a top of the line GeForce 3 equivalent graphics processor, a built-in Ethernet adapter, and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound in hardware. Software The Xbox was designed to take advantage of a slowdown in the saturated PC gaming market and incorporates a built-in Ethernet adapter. Also, the console cost as much as the high-end GeForce 3 video card alone in 2001, while having comparable graphics processing power (the Xbox's NV2A graphics chipset is a derivative of the GeForce 3). Nonetheless, most of these features were not fully exploited in its first year of launch, notably the lack of Xbox Live online multiplayer. The Xbox was the first console to incorporate a hard disk drive, used primarily for storing game saves compressed in zip archives and content downloaded from Xbox Live. This eliminated the need for separate memory cards (although some older consoles, such as the TurboCD and Sega CD had featured built-in battery backup memory prior to this). Most of the games also use the hard drive as a disk cache, for faster game loading times. Some games support "Custom soundtracks," another particularly unusual feature allowed by the hard drive. An Xbox owner can rip music from standard audio CDs to the hard drive so players can play their custom soundtrack, in addition to the original soundtrack of Xbox games that support such a feature. Although the Xbox is based on commodity PC hardware and runs a stripped-down version of the Windows 2000 kernel using APIs based largely on DirectX 8.1, it incorporates changes optimized for gaming uses as well as restrictions designed to prevent uses not approved by Microsoft. A similar approach (PC hardware, stripped-down Windows) was used by the Tandy VIS entertainment system. The Xbox does not use Windows CE due to Microsoft internal politics at the time, as well as limited support in Windows CE for DirectX. The Xbox itself is much larger and heavier than its contemporaries. This is largely due to a bulky tray-loading DVD-ROM drive and the standard-size 3.5" hard drive. Because of this, the Xbox has found itself a target of mild derision, as gamers poke fun at it for things like a warning in the Xbox manual that a falling Xbox "could cause serious injury" to a small child or pet. However, the Xbox has also pioneered safety features, such as breakaway cables for the controllers to prevent the console from being yanked from the shelf. The original game controller design, which was particularly large, was similarly often criticized since it was ill-suited to those with small hands. In response to these criticisms, a smaller controller was introduced for the Japanese Xbox launch. This Japanese controller (which was briefly imported by even mainstream video game store chains, such as GameStop) was subsequently released in other markets as the "Xbox Controller S", and currently all Xbox consoles come with a "Controller S", while the original controller (known as Controller "0" or "The Duke") was quietly discontinued. Several internal hardware revisions have been made in an ongoing battle to discourage modding (hackers continually updated modchip designs in attempt to defeat them), cut manufacturing costs, and to provide a more reliable DVD-ROM drive (some of the early units' drives gave Disc Reading Errors due to the unreliability of the Thomson DVD-ROM drives that were used). However, later generation of Xbox units that used the Thomson TGM-600 DVD-ROM drives and the Philips VAD6011 DVD-ROM drives were still vulnerable to failure that rendered the consoles either unable to read newer discs or caused them to halt the console with an error code usually indicating a PIO/DMA identification failure, respectively. These units would not be covered under the extended warranty. Detailed specifications *CPU: Micro PGA2 733 MHz Intel Mobile Celeron/Pentium III hybrid (Coppermine Core). The part number and cache size indicate a Celeron, but the FSB speed and 8-way associative cache match that of the Pentium III. **Intel IA-32 instruction set **SIMD: SSE. Four single-precision floating-point numbers in one instruction. ***Theoretical maximum 4 FLOPS/cycle (2.9 gigaFLOPS for Xbox) ***Pentium III had architectural drawbacks that lessened real-world SSE throughput. **SIMD: MMX. Integer functions. Switching between FPU and MMX is slow, so not of great use for 3D rendering tasks. Often used for audio and video. **133 MHz FSB. **32 kB L1 cache. 128 kB L2 Advanced Transfer Cache (256-bit). *Unified Memory Subsystem: Total (shared) Memory: 64 MB DDR SDRAM running at 200 MHz, supplied by Hynix or Samsung depending on manufacture date and location **Theoretical Memory Bandwidth: 6.4 GB/s *Graphics Processor: 233 MHz custom chip developed by Microsoft and NVIDIA code named NV2A, the A setting it apart from the PC based NV20 and NV25 (A Geforcev3.5 of sorts, nVidia used a substantial amount of the Geforce 3 design, but added many of the new features to be found in its quick successor the Geforce 4). It gained enhanced vertex processing with 2 vertex shaders, and more flexible pixel shading than DirectX 8. **Theoretical Geometry Rate: 115+ million vertices/second **Theoretical Particle Performance: 125 M/s **Pipeline Configuration: 4 pixel pipelines with 2 texture units each **Theoretical Pixel Fill Rate: 932 Megapixels/second (233 MHz x 4 pipelines) **Theoretical Texture Fill Rate: 1,864 Megatexels/second (932 MP x 2 texture units) **Simultaneous Textures: 4 **Compressed Textures: Yes (6:1 through DDS) **Full Scene Anti-Aliasing: Yes *Storage Medium: 2-5x DVD (XFAT), 8 gigabyte hard disk (new consoles contain a 10GB physical hard drive, though it is formatted to only use 8GB, uses XFAT), optional 8MB memory card for savegame transfer *Audio Processor : NVIDIA MCPX (a.k.a. Soundstorm NVAPU) **Audio Channels: 64 3D channels (up to 256 stereo voices) **3D Audio Support: HRTF Sensaura 3D enhancement. **MIDI DLS2 Support: Yes **AC3 (Dolby Digital) Encoded Game Audio: Yes (via TOSLINK) *Broadband Enabled: Yes (10/100base-T ethernet) *DVD Movie Playback: Yes (separate DVD Playback Kit/Remote required or by modding the Xbox and running DVD-playing homebrew software) *Maximum Resolution (2x32bpp frame buffers +Z): 1920(vert.)x1080(horiz) **Note: NTSC (Non-HD) TV's have less than 500 horizontal lines. PAL TV's have less than 600 horizontal lines. *EDTV and HDTV Support: 480p/720p/1080i (see game boxes for supported resolutions). *Controller Ports: 4 proprietary USB ports *Weight: 3.86 kilograms (8.5 lb). *Dimensions: 320 × 100 × 260 milimeters (12.5 × 4 × 10.5 in) Xbox and DirectX Microsoft's set of low-level APIs for game development and multimedia purposes, DirectX, was used as a basis for the Xbox. Microsoft and Nvidia chip pricing dispute In 2002, Microsoft and Nvidia entered arbitration over a dispute on the pricing of Nvidia's chips for the Xbox."Microsoft takes Nvidia to arbitration over pricing of Xbox processors" eetimes.com March 29, 2002. Retrieved June 29, 2006. Nvidia's filing with the SEC indicated that Microsoft was seeking a US$13 million discount on shipments for Nvidia's fiscal year 2002. Additionally, Microsoft alleged violations of the agreement the two companies entered, sought reduced chipset pricing, and sought to ensure that Nvidia fulfill Microsoft's chipset orders without limits on quantity. The matter was settled on February 6, 2003, and no terms of the settlement were released."Microsoft and Nvidia settle Xbox chip pricing dispute" eetimes.com February 6, 2003. Retrieved June 29, 2006. Official Xbox accessories Audio/video connectors *Standard AV Cable: Provides composite video and monaural or stereo audio to TVs equipped with RCA inputs. Comes with the system. European systems come with a RCA jack to SCART converter block in addition to the cable. *RF Adapter: Provides a combined audio and video signal on an RF connector. *Advanced AV Pack: A breakout box that provides S-Video and TOSLINK audio in addition to the RCA composite video and stereo audio of the Standard AV Cable. *High Definition AV Pack: A breakout box, intended for HDTVs, that provides a YPrPb component video signal over three RCA connectors. Also provides analog RCA and digital TOSLINK audio outputs. *Advanced SCART Cable: The European equivalent to the Advanced AV Pack, providing a full RGB video SCART connection in place of S-Video, RCA composite and stereo audio connections (composite video and stereo are still provided by the cable, through the SCART connector, in addition to the RGB signal), while retaining the TOSLINK audio connector. As Europe has no HDTV standard, no High Definition cable is currently provided in those markets. Numerous unofficial third-party cables and breakout boxes exist that provide combinations of outputs not found in these official video packages; however, with the exception of a few component-to-VGA converters and custom-built VGA boxes, the four official video packages represent all of the Xbox's possible outputs. This output selectivity is made possible by the Xbox's SCART-like AVIP port. Networking *Ethernet (Xbox Live) Cable: A Cat 5 cable for connecting the Xbox to a broadband modem or router. Note that while there is an "official" Xbox 'System Link' cable (a crossover cat5e cable with one of the wires switched), any PC Ethernet cable can be used in the normal way treating the Xbox as an NIC, eg. an Xbox-Xbox connection requires a crossover cable, whereas an Xbox-switch connection requires a straight-through cable. *Xbox Wireless Adapter: a wireless bridge which converts data running through an Ethernet cable to a wireless (802.11b or 802.11g) signal to connect to a wireless LAN. While the official Wireless Adapter guarantees compatibility with the Xbox, almost any wireless bridge can be used. *Xbox Live Starter Kit: A subscription and installation pack for the Xbox Live service, as well as a headset (with monaural earpiece and microphone) that connects to a control box that plugs into the top expansion slot of a controller. The headset can in fact be replaced with most standard earpiece-and-microphone headsets; headset specialist Plantronics produce various officially-licensed headsets, including a special-edition headset for Halo 2. *System Link Cable: A Cat 5 crossover cable for connecting together two consoles or a Cat 5 straight through cable used in conjunction with an Ethernet hub for connecting up to four consoles, for up to 16 total players. This functionality is similar to Sega's DirectLink for Sega Saturn. Multimedia *Xbox Media Center Extender: A kit that allows Xbox to act as a Media Center Extender to stream content from a Windows XP Media Center Edition PC. It can also be used for DVD playback. *DVD Playback Kit: Required in order to play DVD movies, the kit includes an infrared remote control and receiver. DVD playback was not included as a standard feature of the Xbox due to licensing issues with the DVD format that would have added extra cost to the console's base price. By selling a DVD remote separately, Microsoft was able to bundle the cost of the DVD licensing fee with it. Although there is nothing to prevent the Xbox from acting as a progressive-scan DVD player, Microsoft chose not to enable this feature in the Xbox DVD kit in order to avoid royalty payments to the patent-holder of progressive scan DVD playback. Later, as the price of the Xbox dropped, the DVD remote was bundled. *Xbox Music Mixer: A utility software bundled with a microphone that connects to an adapter that plugs into the top expansion slot of a controller. Provides a music player with 2D/3D visualizations as well as basic karaoke functions. It also allows users to upload pictures in JPEG format (to create slide shows) as well as audio in WMA and MP3 format (for karaoke or a game's Custom Soundtracks feature) from a Windows XP machine running the Xbox Music Mixer PC Tool. Controllers and removable storage * The Xbox controller features two analog sticks, a directional pad, two analog triggers, a Back button, a Start button, two accessory slots, and six 8-bit analog action buttons (ABXY, Black, and White). The precise layout of the controls differs between the two variations of controller. **Standard Xbox Controller (AKA "The Duke"): Originally the normal Xbox controller for all territories except Japan, this has since been quietly discontinued and replaced in Xbox packs by the Controller S. The black and white buttons are located above the ABXY buttons, and the Back/Start buttons are located between and below the d-pad and right thumbstick. Also, the standard face buttons (ABXY) were oriented in an oblong parallelogram rather than a uniform diamond, which was very unusual compared to other standard controllers. **Controller S: A smaller, lighter Xbox controller. Once the standard Xbox controller in Japan (codenamed "Akebono"), it was released in other territories by popular demand, and eventually replaced the standard controller in the retail pack for the Xbox console. The white and black buttons are located below the ABXY buttons, and the Back/Select buttons are similarly placed below the left thumbstick. *Memory Unit: An 8 MB removable solid state memory card onto which game saves (zip archives in reality) can either be copied from the hard drive when in the Xbox Dashboard's memory manager or saved during a game. Note that some recent games (e.g. Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball) do not support this accessory as a cheat prevention measure. This system has been defeated by the Xbox hacking community, who have developed tools to modify savegames to work in a different console, though some unique technical information concerning the recipient Xbox must be known. It is also possible to save an Xbox Live account on a memory unit, making it possible to share it with another Xbox owner, assuming both have access to Xbox Live. *Logitech 2.4 GHz wireless controller. Approved by Microsoft for wireless gameplay with Xbox. Modding the Xbox The popularity of the Xbox inspired efforts to circumvent the built-in hardware and software security mechanisms, a practice informally known as modding. Modding an Xbox in any manner will void its warranty, as it may require disassembly of the console. Having a modified Xbox will also disallow it from accessing Xbox Live as it contravenes the Xbox Live license agreement. Software modding is less intrusive, and involves running software exploits to trick the Xbox into running unsigned program code. This allows a user to run an alternate dashboard and in turn makes playing original games or older games through emulators possible. Beyond gaming, a modded Xbox can be used as a media center with the Xbox Media Center software (XBMC) allowing the playing of DVDs without the DVD dongle/remote and streaming of music and video files from the hard drive or from another computer over a network. A modded Xbox can even be configured into a computer running Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, Darwinhttp://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Darwin, or Microsoft Windows CE operating systems. Price history North America *US$299 (November 15 2001, Launch Price) (CAD$449) *US$199 (May 15 2002) (CAD$299) *US$179 (May 14 2003) (CAD$249) *US$149 (March 29 2004) (CAD$199) Europe (prices include tax) *479€ (Launch Price (Ireland) (March 14 2002]]), *299€ (Launch Price (Rest of Europe) and Ireland April 2 2002) *249€ (August 30 2002) *199€ (April 10 2003) *149€ (August 27 2004) *99€ (Ireland; Christmas 2005 promotional price) *99€ (Spain, January 2006 promotional price) *99€ (Italy, 2006) *79€ (The Netherlands, March 2006) UK *£299 GBP (Launch Price March 14 2002), *£199 (April 26 2002) *£130 (2003) *£99 (August 27 2004) *£79 (2006) Oceania *AU$699 AUD (April 26 2002, Launch Price) (Quickly dropped to $399 after 6 weeks to compete with launch of Nintendo GameCube) *AU$239 AUD (2004) *AU$209 AUD (2005) *AU$188 AUD (2006 Q2) *NZ$499 NZD (October 3, 2002, Launch Price) *NZ$399 NZD (2003) *NZ$349 NZD (2004) *NZ$299 NZD (2004 Q2) *NZ$249 NZD (2004 Q4) [[2005) Japan *¥34,800 JPY (February 2 2002, Launch Price) *¥24,800 JPY (May 22 2002) *¥16,800 JPY (November 20 2003) Of note is the high European launch price. As with many games consoles (for example, the PlayStation series), the Xbox was launched with a price in GBP equal to its US price in USD (in this case, $/£299), and this price then converted for the rest of Europe. Ignoring the GBP-USD exchange rate in the way gives the impression of a 100% mark-up for Europe. However it seems that while Microsoft is continuing to ignore exchange rates, the 360 uses the euro (whose value is much closer to that of the U.S. dollar than the pound sterling) as the price basis for Europe i.e. €/$399.99 and then converted into other currencies. With a price-dropped PlayStation 2 and a comparatively inexpensive GameCube as competition, many users were naturally reluctant to invest in the console. Microsoft countered with a £100 price drop (and its equivalent in the rest of Europe) on April 26 2002, just a month and 12 days after its inital launch in the UK. To avoid frustrating early adopters, they offered any two current games and an extra controller for free to any purchaser who could provide a sales receipt showing the original higher price. By September 15 2005 Microsoft reported a four billion dollar loss in selling the Xbox gaming systems.http://www.joystiq.com/2005/09/26/forbes-xbox-lost-microsoft-4-billion-and-counting/ Xbox 360 :Main article: Xbox 360 NVIDIA ceased production of the Xbox's GPU in August 2005, which almost certainly marks the end of Xbox production and the quick release of the Xbox 360 featuring a new GPU from NVIDIA's rival ATI. http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/05/12/afx2024549.html Category:Xbox Category: Consoles